The Rockaway Beat

Some short takes moving into thesummer season, stories that needto be addressed, but don’t warranta full column.

State Senator Malcolm Smith, who represents Rockaway, probably won’t put out a press release on the story, but he is working hard behind the scenes to ensure that the mayor of upstate Rochester gets control of his public school system just like Mayor Bloomberg took control of ours. This, despite the fact that people are beginning to understand just what a sham the mayor’s control has been. In fact, Smith introduced the bill in the State Senate that would pass control to the mayor and lobbied hard for its passage. As I write this, the outcome is still in doubt. Can Smith’s support of mayoral control be because it guarantees him more charter schools and the campaign contributions that flow from those schools?

Jay Walder came to visit The Wavea week ago and the hour or so hespent with us at the office wasvery enlightening. The first thingI realized is that I really would notwant his job, given the financialclimate. He admitted that his timingin taking the job “stinks,” andhe is right. He is in a no-win situation,being forced to deal with anagency in crisis on one hand andthe people that agency serves onthe other. From his perspective, Ican understand why we no longerhave the resident rebate programon the Cross Bay Bridge. Sure, itwill cost locals some money, butresidents in other parts of the cityhave lost their bus or subway servicein its entirety. Which is worse?You decide. He also spoke abouthis time as a student at BeachChannel High School and of thededicated teachers that made hiseducation work. All in all, it wasan interesting afternoon.

The prominent government watchdog agency, Citizens Union, has changed its position and now supports nonpartisan elections, as The Wave did in an editorial about two months ago. The group says that it changed its mind because the election turnout has grown so low and becaue so many elections are predetermined due to the fact that incumbents are unchallenged or the fact that incumbents seldom lose. “We want to reduce the gamesmanship,” said a spokesperson for the Union. “It’s a remedy to our present political problems and its time has come.” I agree. Under the plan, anybody could run in an open primary and then the two top vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, get to run in the general election. By the way, California voters recently approved Prop-osition 14, an initiative that calls for non-partisan elections and the first one will be held in November.

There will be some who say that Iam an alarmist, but I really thinkthat the court’s decision to forcementally ill residents out of adulthomes and into private apartmentsin the community will be ananathema to Rockaway. Walkdown Beach 116 Street and see thepeople who live in the Park InnHome for Adults panhandle andthreaten shoppers. Then, thinkabout having a dozen of them livingon your block. I think that thementally ill deserve rights, but Ido not believe that right extendsto destroying my rights to enjoymy own neighborhood withoutdealing with crazies on a dailybasis. One person who works withthe residents in the adult homesin Rockaway told me that the greatmajority of them were not able totake care of themselves outside ofan institutional setting. They cannotshop, cook or clean. They oftenhave no idea about how totake care of their own bodies andcertainly don’t understand howimportant it is to stay on theirmeds. How then, will they manageto live independently with only avisit or two each week from a professionalcaretaker? The short answeris, they can’t.

A recent report by The Center for New York City Affairs says that the Department of Education’s dizzying rate of management system changes has made it next to impossible to find out what works and what doesn’t, and that is probably just what the DOE and the mayor have been trying to do. Were the ten regions a good idea? Never mind, let’s try School Support Organ-izations. Wait a minute, let’s change that to Children First Networks. Wait a few minutes more, and something new will be coming down the pike, and then something else altogether. The center sent people into the schools, interviewing scores of administrators, teachers and parent leaders. What they found was not school improvement, but a “deeply flawed system of oversight, inexperienced and ineffective principals, who are left on their own with little guidance from anybody and a curriculum that is little more than test prep.” That is just what I have been saying for the past seven years, and it’s nice that others are finally waking up and opening their eyes to the smoke and mirrors that Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein have been feeding the public since they took over the system. By the way, the report is available online at the center’s website.

Dr. Harold Paez, the Republicancandidate for Audrey Pheffer’s Assemblyseat in the 23rd AssemblyDistrict, dropped in for a chat lastweek, and he is an interesting guy– an Hispanic Republican who hassome progressive ideas. It’s not sosurprising that a doctor get involvedwith government. Therewere five physicians who signedthe Declaration of Inde-pendence,after all. The Rockaway residentis a foot and ankle specialist atLincoln Hospital in the Bronx,where his fluent Spanish comes inhandy. He has a five-point plan forreforming government and improvingour quality of life. You canfind more on Paez on page two ofthis issue of The Wave.